Conventionally, a system for managing maintenance parts for multiple types of machines located in a plant has involved storing needed maintenance parts in the plant. When a maintenance part needs to be replaced due to a maintenance inspection of a machine or the like, the stored maintenance part is used for the machine, and an order is issued to replace the stored maintenance part that was used.
Thus, for an enterprise that operates multiple plants, maintenance parts are stored and managed independently within each plant, and maintenance parts are generally stocked so that there are no shortages in any of the plants.
Thus, the conventional organizational method may lead to shortages in maintenance parts and may lead to work delays in cases such as when there is a sudden increase in the number of maintenance parts needed as a consequence of a sudden rise in production volume. On the other hand, stocking large quantities of maintenance parts to be able to handle these types of changes in the environment increases maintenance costs. Furthermore, if more than one type of maintenance part is used in the plant, the maintenance costs are even greater.